A handful of words in the English language have the power to slam conversations to a screeching halt. In most cases, these words gain their power from their ability to utterly dismiss the humanity, agency, or moral legitimacy of another person. For many Americans, one of these words is "privilege." In our culture's ever-developing pursuit of social justice, "privileged" has become a go-to word for describing people or groups we deem insensitive to the plight of the marginalized. "White privilege," for instance, references the fact that Caucasians are less likely to experience hindrances on their path toward social and material success, particularly in comparison to African-Americans and Latinos, and it also signals the fact that white Americans rarely have to deal with racialized treatment (whether benign, ignorant, or malicious). For example, if a white person is initially skeptical of whether shootings of unarmed black men are racially charged...